Posted!

Join the Conversation

Shoe thrown at Hillary Clinton at Vegas speech

Hillary Rodham Clinton was ready with a quip after a woman threw a shoe at her as she took the stage for a Las Vegas speech.

Catalina Camia, USA TODAY
9:23 p.m. CDT April 10, 2014

LAS VEGAS, NV - APRIL 10: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ducks after a woman threw an object toward her while she was delivering remarks at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries conference on April 10, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Clinton is continuing on a speaking tour this week with the stop at the recycling industry trade conference.(Photo: Isaac Brekken Getty Images)

Hillary Rodham Clinton was ready with a quip after a woman threw a shoe at her as she took the stage for a Las Vegas speech.

Security at the Mandalay Bay casino resort ushered out the woman, who is now in federal custody after the incident at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries meeting.

"My goodness, I didn't know that solid waste management was so controversial," Clinton said. "Thank goodness she didn't play softball like I did."

Clinton dodged the object, which sailed past her head.

Mark Carpenter, a spokesman for the recycling institute, said the woman was not affiliated with the organization nor credentialed for the event.

"Our staff denied her access before she later rushed past security," Carpenter said in a statement. "An ISRI staffer then stopped her as she approached the stage. She was then handed over to law enforcement."

Jerry Simms, the outgoing chairman of the recycling institute, offered a "deepest apology for that crude interruption."

The organization represents more than 1,700 companies that process, broker and industrially consume metals, paper, plastics, glass, rubber, electronics and textiles. Both Clinton and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak spoke at the meeting.

Clinton, who has said she's thinking about running for president in 2016, has been making paid speeches and is finishing a new book about her State Department days that will be released June 10. She's on a three-state swing of the West Coast.

The Clinton incident evokes a 2008 event in which an Iraqi journalist threw shoes at President George W. Bush in Baghdad.